Arkansas police have arrested Kendra Duggar, the wife of reality TV personality Joseph Duggar, on misdemeanor child abuse charges, marking the latest controversy involving the family featured on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting.
Kendra Duggar faces four counts each of endangering the welfare of a minor and second-degree false imprisonment, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas. She is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
Authorities arrested Kendra Duggar just days after her husband, Joseph Duggar, was taken into custody in Florida on charges of lewd and lascivious behavior involving a child under 12. Investigators allege he molested a girl when she was nine years old during a family trip to Panama City Beach.
Joseph Duggar admitted to touching the child inappropriately during a conversation with her father and a detective, stating that his “intentions were not pure,” according to an arrest affidavit obtained by People magazine.
Officials say the charges against Kendra Duggar are unrelated to those her husband faces in Florida, according to KNWA.
The 19 Kids and Counting series followed the lives of parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their children, all of whom have names beginning with the letter J. The Duggar family, based in Tontitown, Arkansas, practiced strict Baptist beliefs, homeschooled their children, wore modest clothing, and promoted conservative Christian family values.
TLC canceled the show in 2015 after allegations surfaced that the Duggars’ eldest son, Joshua, had molested four of his sisters as a teenager. He is now serving a prison sentence for possessing child sexual abuse material.
Joseph, 31, is the seventh of the Duggar family’s 19 children. He met Kendra at church, and they married in 2017 when he was 23 and she was 19.
Their relationship appeared on Counting On, a TLC spin-off released after the cancellation of 19 Kids and Counting. Joseph and Kendra Duggar share four children, ranging in age from three to seven.